1998 - Devil's Valley by Andre Brink

Author:Andre Brink
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 1998-06-06T16:00:00+00:00

The Late Mr Lukas (Seer) Lermiet

“God, yes, look, we didn’t mean to bother You today, but these are bad times and a man can’t just lie smelling his own (expletive deleted). I don’t know how well You know Jurg Water, but we kept on hoping he would find something with his divining rod. But now any tick can see he’s (expletive deleted) useless, which is why we’re talking to You under four eyes today. You know me as a man who doesn’t beat about the bush. I’m not like that great-great-great-greatgrandchild of mine, Lukas Death, who shies away when you corner him. Nor like Petrus Tatters who’s such a liar one never knows what to believe, especially when he starts tearing up cloths with the widow of old Giel Eyes. Nor like Brother Holy who picks his words from the Tree of Knowledge when they’re still green, while everybody knows all he really thinks about is (expletive deleted). I go straight to the fountain’s eye. So You’d better listen if I tell You about the (expletive deleted) this drought has already caused us. If You would take the trouble to walk from where I usually sit up there at the Gateway with the goats, and You follow the route I staked out when I first came down here with my family, along the Bird Krans and below the Honey Krans, past the Bushman pictures where Strong-Lukas’s name was written to honour his memory, You can go and look for Yourself if You don’t believe me, and then You cut down past Accident Bend, across Breakneck Heights and Hard-Times Hollow and Breakyoke, then down Jacob’s Ladder to Griet’s Hole, past Snow Neck and Give-up, through the straits of So-help-me-God and Crynot and Tightballs, and then right past Great-Sorrow to Nebo’s Point, and from there to Breathless towards Mina’s Pisshole, all along the riverbed to the Tree-of-Knowledge and Mooi-Janna’s Pool, I hope You’re still with me: I’m saying that if You follow that road, right through our valley from Rotgut to Hans Magic’s hut, which he should really start cleaning up, the place smells like (expletive deleted), then all You see is just drought and desolation. If I were You, God, I’d be (expletive deleted) ashamed of myself. No one among us would let his house go to ruin like that, excepting Ouma Liesbet Prune who is past the age of accountability and Ben Owl who is too (expletive deleted) hopeless to do anything about it, then he’d have had his (expletive deleted) kicked well and proper. Have You no pride in Your handiwork any more? No father I know of, apart from that (expletive deleted) Jurg Water, treats his children so badly, but he’s only second-generation so he doesn’t know any better and there’s no excuse for Yourself. You think You can get away with murder. You’re very quick to claim the honour if things go well, but now that the world is (expletive deleted) You think You can wipe Your (expletive deleted) on us.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.